That small firebox would've hurt the X-class in the steaming department. Lack of superheating likely didn't do them any favors either. Furthermore I'd imagine that maintainance on two roads with no prior exprience with articulated designs didn't endear them to crews... On the Maine Central their S-class successors turned less tractive effort, to the tune of about 6,000 pounds less, but the larger firebox, superheating, and possibly stokers (I'm not sure if they carried them) on a locomotive that is easier to maintain probably made up for their shortcomings. We also need to consider that some of these opinions could've developed after the X-class was gone from both the B&M and Maine Central, where they had taken delievery of decidely superior successors in the form of Berksires, Santa Fes, Mountains and Mikados.

Charles Fisher reported in his "Locomotives of the Maine Central" series in R&LHS Bulletin 56 in 1941 that it was 1203 (ex-B&M 3001) that lasted until 1935, not 1204 as reported at the steamlocomotive.com link above. Fisher also said the class had 63" drivers, not 61". I don't know who is correct, so I'm just noting a discrepancy in the record.

Only 50 square feet of grate for a 2-6-6-2? No wonder they were "unsatisfactory". For comparison, a USRA light Pacific had a little over 70 square feet of grate area.

I double checked on the S-class 2-8-2s that replaced them... 56.5 square feet on their grates. I'm no expert but that looks to be a decent improvement...*Scratch that, that's the pre-USRA S-Class specs, which come out at 66.7 square feet.

Only 50 square feet of grate for a 2-6-6-2? No wonder they were "unsatisfactory". For comparison, a USRA light Pacific had a little over 70 square feet of grate area.

I double checked on the S-class 2-8-2s that replaced them... 56.5 square feet on their grates. I'm no expert but that looks to be a decent improvement...*Scratch that, that's the pre-USRA S-Class specs, which come out at 66.7 square feet.

That 56.5 square feet of grate area sounded familiar. . .for another pre-USRA design from about the same time. . .nothing other than Southern's Ms class, with the surviving example being the famous 4501.

Looks like the engines from both roads were fairly close, though hardly identical.

Sounds like another thing that didn't help were oil fired locomotives on a bituminous coal fired road. Odd balls never last unless they are a lot better than the regular ones.

Since we were probably not comparing apples to apples is a 50 sq ft grate area small for an oil burner? I am sure they ran steam pipes back to the tank, but oil in Maine winters doesn't flow the best especially since we are probably talking about the tar like Bunker grade oils.

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